Saturday, March 3, 2018

Viasat introduced its fastest satellite-based home Internet service for the U.S. market to date, boasting nation—with downlink speeds up to 100 Mbps. The new Viasat service also offers unlimited data plans.

The new service is powered by the ViaSat-2 satellite system, which was launched on June 1, 2017 by Arianespace. The Ka-band satellite was built by Boeing.

"We've upped the game for satellite internet by delivering a new service that gives consumers what they want: more data, faster speeds and better entertainment experiences across all device types," said Mark Dankberg, Viasat's chairman and CEO. "Today's service launch is an important step forward in Viasat's mission to deliver faster internet anywhere. The innovations we're making across our satellite system allow us to do extraordinary things, from moving the satellite industry up-market by delivering premium services, speeds and plans that give consumers new choices in their internet service provider, to helping bridge the digital divide in the U.S. today."

Viasat also confirmed that it is already building its next-generation high-capacity satellite system—ViaSat-3—which is expected to enable high-quality, high-speed internet access for billions of people and emerging markets worldwide. The ViaSat-3 system will offer global coverage with only three satellites, each designed to support over 1-Terabit per second (Tbps) of network capacity, further expanding the reach of 100+ Mbps broadband access. The first ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to go into service in 2020 for the Americas, with the second satellite for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) expected to launch approximately 6-months later. A third ViaSat-3 class satellite is planned for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.